Page 65 of Blood Sacrifice

The flash of red was the final warning that the curse had been cast.

I had trained with the priestesses who protected Shangri-La in Tibet’s Kunlun Mountains, learned how to incorporate spells into my body, to create my own personal grimoire that only I could access.

I felt the moment of impact, the curse stabbing into me like a dagger cutting through my soul. The motion of me appearing suddenly in front of Salvator sent him tumbling back. My eyes locked with Aisha’s and I saw hers widen in horror as sherealised what she had done before she disappeared into her portal.

“What the fuck have you done?” Dominic demanded, reaching my side, and ripping the fabric of my top to assess the damage.

Salvator pushed himself up, confusion morphing to panic when he realised I had put myself in the path of the spell. “What?” His gaze dropped to the wound at the side of my abdomen. “We need to get her to the medical unit!”

“Unless any of your doctors are trained in the removal of curses, shut up and let me think.” Dominic pressed the edges of the wound and a wave of dizziness washed over me. “Why do you always have to be so bloody noble? We could have sacrificed the wolf and rid this world of another magical threat.”

“You are an absolute dick,” Salvator snapped. “All that matters is saving Luna.”

He grabbed my face, pressing his forehead to mine until our eyelashes kissed.

“Stay with me, baby,” Salvator said against my lips. “Don’t you dare try to leave me again.”

My mouth opened and closed, but no words came out. Even my vision was blurred as another wave of pain crested over me, my fingers grasping the front of his shirt.

Salvator’s arms engulfed me, his unique spicy scent that reminded me of him surrounding me. There was no escape or cure for the death curse, only an assured painful end.

“Get your hands off me! I’m here on very important business!” a female Scottish accent said from somewhere in the distance. “I got here as quickly as I could. Step aside and let me examine the patient.”

Maia had always been a force of nature from the first time I met her too long ago for her not to be family. I felt her handsmove over me when Salvator reluctantly released me from his hold, her magic making goosebumps rise.

“Hold this,” she said. “Dominic, give me some of your blood since you tend to have a natural resistance to magic.”

“What is it with people wanting a sample of my blood? First Caine and now you. There’ll be none left in me if this continues.” His mouth was protesting, but the burning at the site of my wound said he had poured his blood into it.

“Are you her mate?” Maia demanded, her hand brushing my forehead. “She’s burning up. I need the strength of your wolf.”

“What are you doing, witch?” Dominic asked, his voice sounding close as if he had crouched down.

“A death curse is created to kill one person.” Maia paused for several moments. “I’m trying to make it think there is more than one person. Spells are living entities with a singular purpose.”

“And if they can’t fulfil that purpose?” Salvator asked, his fingers lacing through mine.

“I’m not sure,” Maia replied, and I could imagine her nose wrinkling in annoyance at all the questions. She had always treated magic like a science experiment that needed to be taken apart and understood at the basic level.

I started to shiver, my body fighting the effects of the curse. A furnace burned from the site of the wound through me, making me feel as if I was about to combust.

“Fuck this,” Salvator muttered. My entire body was shifted and lifted, and even in my dazed state and unable to open my eyes, I knew I was resting back against his chest, his hands covering mine and his chin on top of my head.

I must have lost consciousness, but the next time I found awareness, everything felt unusual and tingly, my extremities numb, and my head pounding a tribal beat. It felt as if my mouthwas so dry that my tongue was stuck to the roof of my mouth, and my skin was on fire.

The darkness consumed me, my next conscious thought that I was inside Misti the volcano, my body burning in her lava. I remembered the faces of the youths that were sacrificed, the expression in their eyes as they tried to be brave since Balor told their families this was a great honour. Their screams haunted me even now, the moments of their death something I will never forget.

I walked through dark passages with red lava casting an evil glow. The ghosts of those lost to the forbidden sacrifice wandered these corridors bewildered and abandoned. A stabbing sensation washed over me, and I held my side where the pain radiated from. Dark, thick black blood oozed from a wound, and I elevated my hand to study it, confused.

A memory flashed through my head, and I saw my sister’s face.Aisha.I tried to focus, to grasp hold of the memory. The scene morphed into our last night in the temple. The same terror raced through my veins at the thought of losing my family again. I believed Aisha and I would make our way into the world together since she was my big sister. Her eyes met mine before she pulled the hood of her dark cloak over her head and left the temple.

I replayed searching for her outside, thinking she had waited for me as hopelessness began to sink in. Salvator had found me that night, guiding me to safety and ensuring that none of Balor’s priests discovered me.

Salvator.

He hated witches for what they had done to him and the members of his pack. I had seen it on his face, witnessed the disgust in his dark eyes when he looked at me. Mates meant there was a magnetic attraction that drew us together, but that didn’t mean that he loved me.

How did we keep messing everything up and destroying what fate intended for us?

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